Boxun News contributor arrested in China

May 14, 2014 2:00 PM ET

Hong Kong, May 14, 2014--Chinese
authorities said on Tuesday that police arrested a contributor to the
U.S.-based Chinese-language news website Boxun News on May 3, accusing him of fabricating
stories that harmed China's image, according to news reports. The Committee to
Protect Journalists condemns Xiang Nanfu's arrest,
which is the latest in a wave
of detention of dissidents, including lawyers, professors, and journalists,
in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of Tiananmen Square.

Xiang was shown on
state TV on Tuesday, "confessing" to making up facts in his stories, the latest
in a series of such appearances. Last week, journalist Gao Yu appeared to confess to leaking a confidential
Communist Party document.

"Xiang Nanfu's arrest demonstrates that China has
little tolerance for reporting on dissidence," said CPJ Asia Program
Coordinator Bob Dietz from New York. "Meanwhile, the rule of law is flouted by
televised parades of journalists 'confessing' to their alleged crimes. Xiang
should be released immediately and all charges against him dropped."

Authorities charged Xiang, 62,
with "provoking trouble" in his articles for Boxun News, according to
the official Xinhua state news agency. The agency
said Xiang had written false stories for Boxun News and had received
large sums of money in exchange for the reports, according to statements by the
Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Xiang has written reports and
taken photographs and videos for Boxun News as a volunteer contributor since
2008, Watson Meng, founder of the news website, told CPJ. He mostly covered protests,
police brutality, and land disputes, Meng said. One of his stories
in April described protesters accusing the government of harvesting organs and
burying people alive. Meng denied to CPJ that Xiang was paid a large sum of
money for his reports and said Xiang never asked for any payment.

Meng also told CPJ that Xiang had
been denied access to a lawyer. Meng said an intermediary was unable to reach
any of Xiang's family members. He said he was concerned Xiang's wife and
daughter could have been arrested as well.

Boxun News, which was founded
in 2000 and based in North Carolina, is
blocked in China.
The website and news aggregator publishes stories on corruption and human
rights abuses in China and gained prominence in 2012 when it accurately predicted the downfall of Bo
Xilai,
the former Communist party chief in Chongqing who was sentenced to life in prison
last year for corruption. Boxun News contributors and its staffhave
been harassed repeatedly by authorities in recent years.

Meng told CPJ that Xiang has been
detained on three separate occasions since 2010 in connection with his
reporting for Boxun News. He said police had not been able to find
sufficient evidence to charge Xiang with any crimes. News reports citing Meng said Xiang was the
second Boxun News contributor to be detained this year, but the reports did
not identify the first contributor.

Hong Kong daily Sing Pao says its journalists and website are under attack

February 22, 2017 6:32 PM ET

New York, February 22, 2017--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Hong Kong authorities to investigate the harassment of journalists at the daily Sing Pao. Sing Pao Media Enterprises, which owns the paper, released a statement yesterday saying that staff have been followed and harassed, and that the...